I keep forgetting everyone I usually tag here and it makes me anxious!
If you would like to keep on being annoyed by me, please let me know and if you would like to further curate said annoyance, please let me know if you want to be tagged in my story updates, tag writing/wip games (like wip wednesdays, A Word with Friends and Thursday Bangers) or other tag games (like quizzes, Your OC as X/Y/Z, random games etc).
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@jenn2d2 @woundedsoul12 @hedwigoprah @rookamell @necromanticsoul @selennes @gingervitus @introvertedfangrl @trash-nerd @blackwall-my-tiny-husband @davrinsleftpectoral @redheadsramblings @aetherflowers @waxlyricalmoon @wolfmoonwildflowers @sorcerousadventurer @elishnord @eiluned @grad-writes @genjyoandgojyoandhakkai @tkwritesdumbassassins @jukkaricity @kabsey @obsessed-with-book-boyfriends @pixiedurango @himluv @nessa-fang @cute-ellyna @notyourmamasdeerbat @serialsforbellara @xkatchy @talkmagically @aiyestel @nyx-de-riva @the-sparrohawk @epiphany-jones @musi-creatively @corinnesin @vorchagirl @tieflingsorcerer @mushrooms-x-moss @dell-amor-te @dellamortte @handsignals @apothe-cary @lemondelighted @sunny374940 @lycheecatee
(and if you're not listed here, or you're a new follower/mutual and would like to be included, please let me know!) The more the merrier! <3)
Cousin—
Zara is dead. Perhaps you know that. When that demon took over—I wasn't sure what you might remember afterward. So know she is dead and our vengeance is taken.
• ───────────────── •
Thank you so much to @illarioappreciation and @lustaniasaxon for hosting this week!
Tags are always no pressure, check this fun thing out, with no expectation of response ❤️
In celebration of the final chapter of Savior being released by @vorchagirl, I thought I'd draw the modern AU version of Illario and Kala. This is after they finally get together after so many years of mutual pining and close calls. As you can see, Illario is very happy.
I, myself, couldn't be happier with the way it ended. Thank you, Lena, for writing them! If you haven't, make sure you check it out. It's a short but fun fic to read!
See the full image
Reference photo below the cut.
Tag list: You have been added because you agreed to be tagged or you liked this post.
Sign me up for: Everything is pretty cool with her... the merc stuff is just meh. If that's the job it's the job, but she'd rather be sleeping really.
Best job: Testing out Turbee’s recipes. What. It’s a job. Being the weights for Gladius to use when he works out. The time we all went dragon hunting and no one got injured, so I could make literal gold coin angels on the ground and wasnt covered in guts. Good times.
Best friends: Turbee. Xi-Xi Gladdy. Bela. Ilene (she says shes not a Lord buts she’s totally a Lord, I don't care)..
Special Skills: Sleeping anywhere anytime. Eating vast amounts of food in very little time. Magic, I guess. Pretty good at Healing. Able to seduce most things with a pulse. Convincing people that I’m light and getting them to carry me everywhere. Talent that is. Able to locate Turbee anywhere, like a sixth sense.
Summary: In the aftermath of Illario's attempt to take First Talon, he is interrogated by Viago and Teia about his allies and motivations.
Read on AO3 or below (755 words.)
Thank you so much to @illarioappreciation and @lustaniasaxon for hosting this week!
• ───────────────── •
Date: 9:53 Dragon, 7 Drakonis
Present: Viago de Riva, 5th Talon; Andarateia Cantori, 7th Talon; Illario Dellamorte, Master Assassin, House Dellamorte.
Purpose: Interview, requested by the First Talon, Lucanis Dellamorte, to ascertain Venatori contacts, resources, and other entanglements promulgated or possessed by Illario Dellamorte through his involvement with their cult.
Viago (de Riva): State your name.
Illario (Dellamorte): You know my name well enough, already, de Riva.
Andarateia [Teia] (Cantori): Illario. You promised—
Illario: I promised to cooperate, not dance for your amusement.
Viago: If you are needed to dance, you will dance, Dellamorte. State your name, and we can dispense with the formalities.
Illario: Very, well, Talon. Illario Dellamorte, Master Assassin, and the lesser of Caterina Dellamorte's grandsons. Do you need my middle names as well? I have an impressive array of dead relatives catalogued in that list.
Viago: No.
Illario: Your loss.
Viago: I shall have to bear it. Now, to the business at hand. Tell us about your new friends.
Illario: laughter You, of all people, should know I do not have any friends. But I will generously assume you mean the Venatori, in the spirit of cooperation. What do you wish to know?
Teia: Why them, Illario? Why our enemies?
Viago: We will get to why later—
Illario: Why not now? Venatori are easily manipulated. They were arrogant, disorganized, powerful, and incredibly stupid. Venatori are singularly focused on their glorious ambition, and pay little attention to anything else. They're willing to cut deals with anyone they think they can double-cross—"
Viago: With so much in common, I think my confusion about your degree of amity can be excused.
Teia: Vi! Illario, just tell him what he wants to know, or we will all grow old while you two bicker like old women with a grudge about their niece's wedding banquet two decades ago.
Illario: I am being quite cooperative. The Venatori do little work on their own, but a large amount of money can do a lot work for you if you spend it correctly.
Viago: Numbers?
Illario: In Treviso? Not much more than what you saw. They are not welcomed by the Antaam, no matter how much either one takes in power from these so-called old gods.
Teia: They're not working with them?
Illario: No. They are two different knives, only likely to succeed when wielded separately. Useless in the same fist.
Viago: So you have nothing?
Illario: I have less than that. My cousin sits where I once aimed. My allies are scattered, my cousin won't even do me the courtesy of a quick death, and my city still sits under the thumb of an invading army lead by a madman.
…
Illario: Oh, don't give me that look. If you have someone pull the green leather books from the shelf nearest the fireplace in my room, I can give you something to at least keep me breathing the air outside of Velabanchel for the night.
Viago: Are they trapped?
Illario: I am wounded by the accusation. Of course they are.
Teia: Illario.
Illario: Nothing your people should have any trouble with, Teia, I promise. I have Venatori supply lines, contacts, and smugglers they lean on frequently. Schedules, routes, estimated numbers and a couple of their codes.
Teia: Any names?
Illario: For the cultists? Only the lower level lackeys, or those so high up they can't remain hidden, like Zara Renata. There should be more than enough in there to track them, though, or at the least hobble their network.
Viago: You had this information for how long, Dellamorte? How many of our people did you let die while you gathered your insurance?
Illario: It wasn't insurance, it was my plan. The Venatori eliminate the Antaam, the Crows do what we do best and eliminate the Venatori. Treviso is free.
Viago: With you as First Talon.
Illario: As I should have been! I have done everything I was ever asked to do, but somehow this is too far? Too much? It is not enough. It has never been enough.
Viago: That your grandmother and cousin are still both alive to stand in judgment over you should be enough of an answer to that.
…
Viago: Is that all you have, then? All you are? Failed ambition, overwrought hair, and some information about supply lines?
Illario: I am also a very snappy dresser. But if you insist, do ask your questions Viago. Perhaps we will find there is a small bit more to me than my very public failures.
• ───────────────── •
Tags are always no pressure, check this fun thing out, with no expectation of response ❤️
Y’all need to see this incredible art that @serensama drew and @blackwall-my-tiny-husband colored of Ilene and Lucanis’s wedding day in a modern AU (posted with permission).
Look at them! Look at how amazing they look! My friends are so talented!!
This was originally for Lucanis Week, but I wasn’t feeling it. Still not 100%, but fuck it.
————
Dinners with Viago de Riva were always fraught affairs, at least from Lucanis's perspective. His grandmother seemed perfectly at ease, as did the bastard prince. Viago viewed his future life as a Talon as an inevitability, a position he would reach with or without Caterina's favor, though he was clearly wise enough to see that with was the smoother path. Illario usually attended with an air of sulky impatience; no one particularly wanted him to be there, least of all Illario himself, but propriety insisted that the servants place a chair for him and that he be there to fill it.
Only Lucanis seemed to feel any kind of tension, and several such meals passed before he began to understand why. He felt something for Viago that he had not felt for anyone else before. It felt like respect or admiration… but it was something more. He wanted the approval of the older boy. (Man. They were men now, Lucanis eighteen and Viago already past twenty, and both of them full Crows besides.) He wanted Viago to think him intelligent, capable, confident—all the qualities that Viago himself seemed to have in spades. He wanted to make a witty remark or an astute observation and receive one of Viago's rare smiles in return. He wanted that sharp blue gaze to seek him out over a wine glass and communicate some shared sentiment that they didn't need words to express. He wanted to know if the dark curls that sometimes fell across that gaze would feel as soft as they looked if he gently brushed them back into place.
Part of him longed to confide his feelings to his cousin, but he knew from Illario's own endless blathering about his seemingly endless line of partners that his cousin would only focus on the crude, physical side of the equation. Lucanis could barely imagine kissing Viago, let alone anything else. He most often daydreamed of the two of them reading together in front of a fire, content and warm in each other's presence, a fantasy that he knew would make Illario scoff. So he kept it all to himself and sat through each dinner unsure what to say or how to act and with a hollow disappointment in his chest when Viago only paid him the attention due to his future First Talon.
Whenever Caterina dismissed him and Illario so she could give Viago advice not meant for their ears, Illario always hurried off, eager to get out amid the bright lanterns and brighter laughter of the city. He had already given up on trying to coax Lucanis into the company of comely men and women, usually because he wanted to engage their friend or sibling in a night of fun and pleasure. Lucanis had tried to go along and enjoy himself like everyone else his age seemed to, but the conversations, the light touches to his arm or hand, even the few kisses he'd exchanged had all felt stilted and forced. Now he'd found someone he wouldn't mind sharing conversation and possibly touches with… and he felt just as stiff and awkward as ever.
So while Illario fled the mostly empty villa in search of company, Lucanis remained and sought the solitude of the gardens either alone or with his pet snake, Filomena. When he was younger, he'd sometimes confided his worries or doubts to her, but he had grown savvy enough to know that any words spoken or written within the confines of the villa (and sometimes without) could eventually make their way to Caterina. So he draped her comforting weight across his shoulders, let her coil around his arms, and confined their one-sided conversation to books he was reading, only occasionally broken by soft croons of affection. Even those could be reported to Caterina, who might decide his pet was an unnecessary distraction.
He also took care to find a corner of the gardens that wasn't occupied by any workers or servants when he carried Filomena out. An out-of-the way bench was the closest he came to true privacy on any given day, and he savored it. Sometimes it was difficult to come by if a heavy rain had led to a bumper crop of weeds in the flower beds or if the plan for an upcoming social event included guests spilling out among the well-groomed paths. Occasionally Illario snuck back in with his paramour of the moment.
And once, Lucanis stumbled across an intruder.
Filomena noticed before he did; her species had unusually good eyesight for spotting people. Even when she raised her head and stared pointedly into a tree, Lucanis assumed her attention had been caught by a bird. Then he took another step, and the light from the nearby lanterns shifted just enough to reflect in the eyes of an elven child.
Alarm probably should have been his first reaction, but he was so surprised that he and the child stared at each other for several seconds before either of them spoke.
"Is she a Western Antivan?" the child asked.
The words broke through his stupefaction, and he quickly shifted to a defensive stance. He doubted the girl—he thought it was a girl by the voice, though her thick accent made it difficult to be sure—presented any danger to him, but a careless Crow was a dead Crow.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "How did you get in here?"
She pointed in the direction of the carriage house. "The gate there. It was not locked."
"How did you get into the carriage house?"
She peeked out further from the leaves, revealing a pale face full of freckles, and raised an eyebrow at him. "In a carriage."
Her tone implied she thought he was the one behaving oddly, and Lucanis bristled. "Get down. Now."
The girl rolled her eyes but obeyed, dropping into a light crouch no more than a meter away from him. She wore the leathers of a fledgling, and beneath a smear of mud, Lucanis could make out the sigil of the Fifth House. Her hair was gathered in a messy bun on the top of her head and sprouted leaves and twigs from her recent perch. Even when she rose to her full height, she barely came up to his chest, yet she closed the distance between them without fear, all of her focus on Filomena.
"She is a Western Antivan, yes? She is pretty! You collect her venom? How? Their fangs are in the back of the mouth, yes? Collecting is difficult?"
Once again Lucanis was struck dumb by thwarted expectations. He could not remember a time when other Crows, even those much older than him, had not treated him with the courtesy due to the heir apparent of the First House. He often found it uncomfortable, yes, but it was at least familiar.
"You came with Viago?" he finally asked, and he nearly cringed at his uncertain tone, anticipating a blow for the crime of revealing his discomposure so clearly.
The girl nodded, though her dark eyes still appraised Filomena, whose flickering tongue indicated she was just as curious about the new person in their vicinity. "He told me to wait in the carriage, but hours go without him. He thought I just sit there?"
She sounded almost amused, as if the thought of obeying a superior Crow was a comical one. She had to be new to the fledgling ranks, and Lucanis marveled that Viago had brought her with him out in public. What had he possibly been thinking? If Caterina had seen this girl, she would have had her on the ground instantly, bruises ripening, for her cavalier attitude, her lack of decorum, her slovenly appearance.
Lucanis suddenly realized that, as a full Crow of a higher House, he was well within his rights to punish the girl himself. Anything short of permanent injury would be accepted, even expected. He could deliver a backhanded blow to her face and be called merciful.
Would Viago be annoyed... or grateful? Would he nod his approval to Lucanis if he dragged this girl before him, evidence of the consequence meted out clear on her face?
He gave no outward sign of his thoughts—he was sure of it—but the girl in front of him froze. Sharp eyes met his, and the thought struck Lucanis that she was older than he’d assumed. Beneath the fear and a hint of indignation was a world-weary disdain that professed he was just the latest in a long line of people (humans? men?) who had tried to beat her down while he lived his life of comfort and clout.
To his surprise, a wave of prickling embarrassment rushed through him in the wake of that judgment. He turned away before it could reach his face.
“They’ll be done soon," he told the girl. "Go before he sees you.”
As if on cue, the sound of a bell summoning him to dessert floated to them from the house. The girl dashed off with admirable speed, disappearing behind the hedges on silent feet. Filomena stretched toward the space where she had been for a moment and then settled her head atop his shoulder again, novelty forgotten. Lucanis trudged back to the house, and despite his best efforts, his thoughts drifted back to the day his mother had gifted him Filomena, to the million questions he had asked about his new pet and the way her eyes had sparkled as she answered
————
(Tagging @serensama and @blackwall-my-tiny-husband as requested once upon a time)
An infant Illario with his parents, Marcello Dellamorte and Nera de Acutis. When he was born, their outlook on life changed. They were so happy they give him a name that meant cheerful and joyous. Neither of them could imagine Illario becoming a Crow but when he's older, they would let him decide.
Ultimately, he didn't have a choice.
Read more about Marcello & Nera below the cut.
Marcello is the second born child and first son of Caterina and Faustino Dellamorte. The eldest sibling, Carmilla, is Lucanis's mother. Nera de Acutis is the eldest sister of Noa and Neri de Acutis.
Marcello and Neri knew each other since they were teen fledglings. Even though they both liked each other, Nera played hard to get which was just fine with Marcello. He enjoyed playing the game of "pursuit" with her. Eventually, the game ended and they began a romantic relationship.
When it was time to discuss marriage, Nera's parents quickly approved the union. Marcello is a Dellamorte after all. Caterina was slower to accept but she recognized the history of the de Acutis family. Nera, for her part, proved to be an excellent Crow, as well.
Marcello and Nera married at the age of 20 and five years later, Illario was born. In another five years, his little sister Isabel was born. Then, two years later, his parents and sister would be killed in a coordinated attack on House Dellamorte.
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